Virgil

Allen Cook Bosa Oliver Dawkins

Yup

The fact that they’d kick the tires on Rivers over Russel Wilson says a lot about how people feel about Russ That Losman deep ball though….

You dare mix up DC and Marvel?! Respect yourself 😋

I started writing my thoughts right before Josh's 40 yard TD run. I was done with the game. Happy to be wrong and have to start all over again.

Not to steal @Just Jack's thunder, but I'd like to think that I willed the Bills to win by starting this write up a few minutes before the Benford pick six. I was at my second thought, seething about our defense and what McD brings to the table if his defense sucks, and then we score 21 points in four minutes. Did the win talk me off the ledge? A little. Do many games come down to a few plays? Yes. Are we severely injured? Yes. Even with all of that, I'm just tired of us not showing up for the games until half time. 1 - Hold my beer - I have this image in my head of McD talking to Benford, asking if he's okay coving the most explosive receiver in the NFL, and Benford just smirking at him. McD then pulls him aside again, asking for a spark, to which Benford gets the first sack of the game. Lastly, watching the time expire and the Bengals seemingly getting their offensive momentum back, Benford goes pure Thanos "Fine, I'll do it myself," and gets the pick six. I mean honestly, while we have Superman on the offense, we apparently now have Batman on the defense. To completely shut down Chase so much that they had to move him to the slot just so he could get a catch is insane. That pick six, while shaking off a dejected Burrow on his way to the end zone, while Chase got to play defender and lose...wow. To know that we can now take away the opposing teams main receiver is a huge boost to the defense and brings Beane's success rate up to 50% for offseason extensions. 2- Superman likes it cold - In a game where we saw masterful throws by both QB's, Josh showed off what sets himself apart from the rest of the elite. Running Josh is back and it was beautiful. Not only did he show elusiveness in the backfield, he showed speed on the long td run, and elusiveness on the final 3rd and 15 game sealing run. I also believe that Josh plays better when Knox is more involved in the game plan. In a game where the receivers again weren't a focal point, Josh put up over 300 total yards and 4 touchdowns. He out-dueled a Burrow who played a monster game. 3 - Rushing attack - Cook picked a really bad time in the season to get a case of fumbleitis. The fumble into the endzone could have been the dagger in this game. You could feel the energy leave the stadium until Josh's 40 yard touchdown run. Cook ran good outside of that, but not enough to compensate for the mistake. As for the rest of the backs, I don't understand why Davis didn't see more touches. Ty Johnson had two big mistakes on the first drive, as he slipped on a clear TD run. Then, on the 3rd and 2 near the goal line, Johnson made no attempt to sell the handoff run on the option play. 4 - Receivers - Two games in a row now where the receivers are almost non-existent. Yes, Coleman and Shakir each caught a touchdown, but the receivers were mainly irrelevant. Gabe led the receivers in snaps, which I assume is more for his blocking ability. I do appreciate that Coleman isn't being handed back his snap count share. It would have been nice to see us take some shots deep, as the Bengals were playing only one safety deep for most of the game. I also liked to see Cooks getting in on the blocking action on Josh's long td run. 5 - Burrow - I don't know the last time I've seen a QB make so many touch throws look effortless. The Bengals carved up the Bills defense on the first three drives. Yes, a lot of that was on the Bills defense with their soft zone. However, Burrow made a lot of high point throws where he gave his receivers the opportunity to make a play, and they responded kindly. There were quite a few passes where I don't know how the Bills defender could have covered any better, and the receiver just made a play. However, the Fitzpatrick curse got to Burrow with those two interceptions. On both, I don't know why he made either throw. Benford was right in front of him and Phillips had his arm up in his face on both throws. 6 - Defense - I can understand the defensive game plan of wanting to respect the run and prevent the big play. But you can't just give Burrow all day to throw. Groot and AJ are incapable of rushing the passer and we were only able to generate pressure when we blitzed. However, you can also tell we don't practice blitzes enough because there were some massive coverage gaps due to communication in the secondary when we did. Third downs were as abysmal as ever. Our run defense was good enough, but it was overall a rough day for Cam, TJ, and Tre. Poyer appeared to be playing well and I'm hoping Bishop's injury isn't anything serious. From a comparison standpoint, the Bills had to convert multiple 4th downs in the first half, and we were overall outplayed by the Bengals defense in that half. That's unacceptable. 7 - Special Teams - Prater picked a good day to not miss an extra point. Our KO units were an opportunity. We gave up multiple returns past the 30 while we struggled to get back to the 20 on multiple kick-offs. Not sure what the issue is here, but I feel like this unit has been very up and down this season. 8 - Spencer - Hopefully he can come back healthy soon, because Van Demark had a rough day. Not only did he have two holding penalties, but he was beat both inside and out throughout the game. Most of Josh's pressure came from his side. Granted, we survived, but I don't know if he should even be a primary back up for us, as he looks lost out there at times. 9 - Gesicki - I'm sorry, but ***** him. I can understand players getting hyped after a good play, but he seemed to be really relishing in his success out there. Maybe it's from his Dolphins tenure, but I felt like he was taunting us all game. His catch on the Bengals last drive was a killer on Cam and he had an overall good game. But again, ***** him. 10 - Chicken or the Egg - Shout out to Knox for putting up numbers we haven't seen in years. This is the type of game that I believe Knox is very capable of having more of. I know he's had his share of drops and is a better blocker than Kincaid, but I feel like we need to try and have more gameplays like this. Knox and Kincaid running free is very difficult to defend, occupies the safeties, makes play action more effective, and makes the running game so much better. Now, was this a result of the Bengals defense being comically bad against the Tight Ends? Maybe. Either way, Knox is a capable playmaker and I hope to see more of it. Bonus - Did we find out why McD burned a TO prior to an extra point? And don't think I forgot about his other wasted TO before a 3rd and short, that the Bengals ultimately converted. We are on to the most meaningful game left on our schedule with the Pats. We are either going to be in the hunt for the division after this next game, or trying to lock up the wild card so we can take week 18 off. With the Broncos winning, the 1 seed seems very unlikely, so hopefully we can get things sorted out prior to week 18. Go Bills!!!!

Josh Benford Knox Thompson

Nope. I knew what I was doing and happy to be wrong.

Our defense is being outplayed by the Bengals defense. Let that sink in.

It’s like blitzing and press creates a difficult situation for the qb on 3rd and long. Who knew?!!

If we’re just going to let them score every drive, might as well send the house and get some hits on Burrow

At this point, I’ll take a coach who’s at least capable of beating the Texans and Bengals, and Chiefs in the playoffs. For as great a team as we are supposed to be, it’s crazy that we have zero shot to win those games with this regime. And none of them are in our division. It’s pathetic really

Tell your DBs you have zero faith in them covering downfield without telling them you have zero faith in them…..

Go Duke! JMU getting a playoff spot would be nuts

Just give me one. That’s all I want. I won’t give a ***** about anything this team does beyond that. After that, McD and Beane can sign lifetime contracts for all I care. Josh can retire and go to Cali. We can draft DBs every round until the end of time. McD can clap his little heart out. Just one…..